RUS Awards $254.6 million to 22 Stimulus Projects

Posted by Jesse WardcloseAuthor: Jesse WardName: Jesse WardEmail: jward@ntca.orgSite:http://www.ntca.orgAbout: Jesse Ward is a policy analyst for the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA). Jesse evaluates emerging technologies, both domestically and internationally, in the key areas of broadband, video and wireless, for the benefit of rural telcos.See Authors Posts (692) on Thursday, March 4, 2010 · (1)

RUS announced today the selection of the 22 broadband infrastructure projects in 18 states or territories that will receive broadband stimulus funding. In all, more than $254.6 million will be invested to bring broadband to rural unserved and underserved communities. An additional $13.1 million in private investment will be provided in matching funds.

Congress provided the USDA’s RUS with $2.5 billion in broadband funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. To date, $895.6 million has been provided to support 55 broadband projects in 29 states or territories.

A complete list of new Recovery Act broadband award recipients by state is below:

Alaska

Supervision Inc.: The Farther and Faster Project; $174,680 grant and $43,671 private investment. The funding will provide last mile cable to deliver broadband capability to homes, businesses, and community facilities in Tanana, a predominantly Alaska Native community located on the Yukon River.

American Samoa

American Samoa Telecommunications Authority: Broadband Linking the American Samoa Territory (BLAST) Project; $10,000,000 loan, $81,034,763 grant and $4,462,000 private investment. The funding will replace an old, deteriorating legacy copper infrastructure, with a more robust and weather-durable fiber optic network that will link the main islands of American Samoa, making it possible to provide broadband services to every household, business, and critical institution in the region.

California

Ponderosa Cablevision: Millerton Project; $1,926,431 loan and $1,926,431 grant. The funding will provide Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) in a 31-square-mile area adjacent to Ponderosa’s current service territory. Telemedicine and online education applications will now be accessible since the closest medical and school facilities require a 45-minute drive.

Colorado

Wiggins Telephone Association: Weldona-Orchard FTTP Project; $2,168,544 loan and $2,159,887 grant. The funding will provide FTTP in the Weldona-Goodrich-Orchard area of northeastern Colorado.

Georgia

Flint Cable TV: Flint Digital Wave Project; $4,095,913 loan and $4,095,913 grant. The funding will provide a Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) network to homes in underserved areas of Culloden, Yatesville, and Friendship Community in rural central Georgia. This HFC network will use the latest DOCSIS 3.0 cable standard, enabling channel bonding and speeds up to 100Mbps.

Idaho

Coeur d’Alene Tribe: Coeur d’Alene Reservation Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Project; $6,142,879 loan and $6,142,879 grant. The funding will provide a FTTH broadband system offering broadband services to anchor institutions, critical community facilities, and approximately 3,770 unserved and underserved households in the communities of Plummer, Worley, Tensed, and DeSmet, as well as isolated farms and rural home sites on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation in North Idaho.

Indiana

Sunman Telecommunications: 700MHz WiMAX Wireless Broadband Plan Project; $5,694,611 loan and $5,694,611 grant. The funding will provide needed broadband services to households, businesses and key community organizations that are currently underserved in rural communities of Indiana. (About one percent of this network also serves a small area in Kentucky.)

Halstad Telephone Company (HTC): The HTC Minnesota Exchanges Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) Project; $3,277,500 loan and $3,277,500 grant. The funding will provide FTTP broadband in five towns and surrounding rural/farm areas in Norman and Polk Counties in Minnesota, using 320 miles of fiber optic cable and providing those locations with broadband capability up to 100 Megabits. (less than five percent of this network will serve an area in North Dakota)

Halstad Telephone Company (HTC): The HTC Hillsboro North Dakota Town Broadband Project; $246,500 loan, $246,500 grant, and $7,000 private investment. The funding will increase broadband capability up to 100 Megabits for Internet and video service to 800 locations in the town of Hillsboro in Traill County.

Ohio

Wabash Mutual Telephone Co.: Fort Recovery Area FTTH Project; $2,201,042 loan and $2,174,787 grant. The funding will provide an optical fiber network in the region that allows digital television and high-speed Internet using fiber optics deployed directly to the premises.

PRIDE Network, Inc.: The Texas South Plains Project; $22,720,551 loan and $21,829,549 grant. The funding will provide a FTTP telecommunications infrastructure, with a WiMAX service-extension overlay that will bring advanced broadband services to rural communities of the Texas South Plains region.

PRIDE Network, Inc.: The Burkburnett and Iowa Park Project; $12,811,071 loan and $6,309,931 grant. The funding will provide a FTTP telecommunications infrastructure, with a WiMAX service-extension overlay, that will bring advanced broadband services to the rural communities of Burkburnett and Iowa Park (less than five percent of this network will serve an area in Oklahoma).

XIT Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc.: The FTTP and Very High Speed DSL2 (VDSL2) Combination Application Project; $3,065,440 grant, and $3,190,560 private investment. The funding will provide a FTTP and Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN) advanced DSL technology within two separate service areas in and around the communities of Dalhart and Stratford.

West Virginia

Gateway Telecom LLC: West Virginia Last Mile Project; $1,475,459 loan and $1,417,597 grant. The funding will provide a wireless last-mile broadband solution to serve residences and anchor institutions in unserved rural areas of West Virginia.